CHAPTER THREE
“RUN THROUGH IT again for me, from the top,” Chief Farnsworth said to Freddie and Beckett, who’d been summoned to his office upon their return to headquarters.
“Sam and I were working the scene,” Freddie said, “trying to determine whether or not we were dealing with a homicide, when we saw Beckett arguing with four suits that we immediately identified as federal agents. We went over to see what was going on and to help Beckett.”
“They were demanding I allow them in because they urgently needed to speak to Mrs. Cappuano,” Beckett said.
“They called her that?” Farnsworth asked, rubbing his chin.
“Yes, sir,” Freddie said, still trying to process what’d happened.
“Then what?”
“The lieutenant and Detective Cruz approached the tapeline to see what was going on, and the agents busted through the tape and took her. They carted her off to a waiting SUV and were pulling away before we could catch up to them.”
“We tried,” Freddie said, still gutted that she’d been taken when he was standing right there, unable to do a thing to stop it. “But they moved with lightning speed to get her out of there.”
“One of the SUVs stayed back to make sure we couldn’t follow them,” Beckett added. “He blocked the road to keep us from leaving in cars.”
“And you’re sure they were actually federal agents?” Farnsworth asked.
Freddie’s gut clenched with anxiety. “That’s the thing, sir. They said they were Secret Service and flashed their badges, but I couldn’t get a close enough look at them before they were grabbing her and taking off. The whole thing happened so fast.” He’d have nightmares about how easily she’d been plucked out of his grasp and the way he’d frozen with indecision, as if he weren’t a highly trained police officer. “I didn’t know what to do. If I pulled a weapon on them and they were actually federal agents, that’d be a disaster. But I just keep asking myself, what if they weren’t federal agents? What if she’s been kidnapped?”
“She hasn’t been,” Gonzo said as he joined them in the chief’s office. “I just got a phone call from an Agent Dan Cooley, who is the Secret Service agent in charge of the detail that was sent to retrieve the lieutenant. I did a run on him. He’s legit.”
“Why did he call you?” Freddie asked.
“Because they’ve gathered up the entire Holland and Cappuano family and taken them to a safe location. My son was with Angela when they picked her up, so he’s with them, and they wanted me to know.”
“Where are they?”
“He couldn’t tell me anything other than they are safe and under protection of the United States government.”
“What the hell?” Freddie asked. “How long are they going to keep them in this safe place?”
“He wouldn’t tell me that either.”
They all looked to the chief for answers he didn’t have. “Do we know the whereabouts of the vice president?”
“I poked around online,” Gonzo said, “and the most recent mention I could find was a formal dinner he attended yesterday in Iran, which was covered by a White House pool reporter. There’s been no mention of him since.”
“I suppose no news is good news,” Farnsworth said. “If something had happened to him, we would’ve heard about it by now.”
“I suppose so,” Freddie said, “but clearly something is going on with him that has the Secret Service in full-on freak-out mode.”
“Let’s do a little digging to see if we can find anything online and get Archie’s team involved,” Farnsworth said, referring to Lieutenant Archelotta’s IT squad.
“I’ll take care of that, sir,” Gonzo said.
“What’re we thinking about the floater in the river? Is it Ruby Denton?”
“We’re waiting for Dr. McNamara to make a positive ID,” Gonzo said. “We’ll know more in the next few hours.”
“Let’s get out there and work that case,” Farnsworth said. “CSU is doing a grid search now, but let’s treat it like a homicide until we know it isn’t.”
“Yes, sir,” Gonzo said for all of them.
They left the chief’s office and returned to the detectives’ pit, passing other officers who gave them quizzical looks. Apparently the word was out about Lieutenant Holland being snatched from a crime scene by Secret Service agents.
“I thought she wasn’t under their protection,” Beckett said, keeping his voice down.
“She isn’t,” Gonzo said, “but from what the agent in charge told me, they received a threat against the vice president and his family, so Nick authorized them to bring everyone in.”
“Wow,” Beckett said. “What kind of threat would lead to that?”
“Could be anything,” Freddie said. “No sense speculating at this point. I’m sure it’ll be all over the news before too long.”
“Nothing has been released yet,” Gonzo said. “I checked.” His phone rang, and he checked the caller ID. “It’s Chris. I’ve got to take this and tell her our kid is under Secret Service protection.”
“Good luck with that,” Freddie said.
Gonzo walked away from them to take the call.
“This is seriously effed up,” Beckett said.
“Yeah, it is, but she’d want us to focus on working the floater case, so that’s what we’re going to do,” Freddie said. Though he was still rattled and furious about the scene at the river, Sam would want them to do their jobs and not worry about her. She’d say she could take care of herself, but after what happened in that basement with Stahl and Marissa Springer, he hoped that wherever she was, it wasn’t sparking memories of that grim episode.
Gonzo’s raised voice caught Freddie’s attention. “I don’t know how long, babe,” Gonzo said. “All I know is what the agent in charge told me.” After a pause, he added, “No, they wouldn’t release him. They’re under orders to keep everyone in the safe location for the time being. He’ll be fine, Chris—of course he will. He’s with Angela, Sam and Tracy. They won’t let anything happen to him.” Gonzo sighed deeply. “Of course I don’t like it, but what am I supposed to do about it? I have no idea where the safe location is, and even if I did, I wouldn’t be able to get in there.” He paused. “Yes, honey, of course I will. Try not to worry. He’s with people who love him. Okay. I love you too.” After he ended the call, he sat at his desk, head in his hands.
“She’s not happy, huh?” Freddie asked.
“That’s putting it mildly. She’s hysterical.”
“Do you need to go home?”
“Nah, I can’t leave with the LT God knows where and a floater to contend with.”
“I could hold down the fort if you need to go check on her.”
“I’ll call her back in a little while to make sure she’s okay. In the meantime, since we’re both without partners for the rest of our shift, let’s go see what Lindsey has found out about our body.”
Freddie took note of the casual way Gonzo said he was without a partner. Since Detective Arnold was killed over the winter, Gonzo had been working on his own or with Freddie and Sam. The department had yet to fill the vacancy in their squad that Arnold’s death had created, which was fine with Freddie. He couldn’t conceive of anyone else sitting in Arnold’s cubicle and didn’t want to think about the day, probably in the not-too-distant future, when they’d have to accept a new person into their group.
Freddie didn’t like change, especially the kind of change that resulted from one of his closest colleagues being murdered.
“You okay?” Gonzo asked as they walked together to the morgue at the other end of the headquarters building.
“Yeah. I was just thinking about Arnold, actually.” He hoped he wasn’t making a mistake by mentioning Gonzo’s late partner. Only in the last month or two had Gonzo seemed more like his old self again, after watching his partner be gunned down right next to him and slipping deep into grief in the aftermath.
“What about him?”
“Just about who they might get to fill his spot.”
“No idea.”
“I hope it doesn’t happen soon. I don’t want to see someone else in his cube.”
“Gonna happen eventually.”
“I hope eventually is in the far-off future.”
Gonzo had nothing to say to that, but then, he didn’t say much about Arnold these days. Despite his silence on the matter, Freddie knew Gonzo’s late partner was never far from his mind.
They entered the morgue, where an antiseptic scent greeted them.
“This is gonna be bad,” Gonzo said. “You ready for that?”
Freddie’s stomach turned. This was one of the worst parts of a difficult job. “As ready as I ever am.”
“What’ve you got, Doc?” Gonzo asked as they entered the sterile room where Lindsey and her deputy, Byron Tomlinson, were examining the body—or what was left of it.
Freddie choked back a wave of nausea when he got his first look at the bloated lump of flesh that had once been a human being. The only thing about the body that still looked human was a knotted, slimy clump of long hair.
“Female, approximately eighteen to twenty-five,” Lindsey replied.
“How long was she in the water?”
“I’m estimating seven to ten days.”
“Which would fit the time period that Ruby Denton has been missing,” Freddie said.
“We’ll need dental records to confirm the identity,” Lindsey said. “But one thing I can tell you is whoever she is, she was well cared for at one time in her life.”
“How can you tell?” As far as Freddie could tell, she was a lump of decomposing flesh.
“Her teeth are gorgeous. Probably had orthodontics.”
For some reason, that detail made Freddie unreasonably sad for the parents who’d soon hear their child was in the morgue.
“Is there anything else you can tell us?” Gonzo asked.
“I can’t be sure, but there’re possible ligature marks here.” Lindsey pointed to the neck area.
“So she might’ve been strangled.”
“It’s a theory.”
“That and the teeth are more than we had ten minutes ago,” Gonzo said. “Keep us posted on the ID.”
“Can you see about getting me Ruby’s dental records?”
Freddie’s stomach turned again at the thought of asking her parents for such a thing.
“Yeah,” Gonzo said. “We’ll take care of it.”
“What’s the plan?” Freddie asked on the walk from the morgue back to the pit.
“Let’s talk to Ruby’s parents.” Gonzo checked his watch. “And then we can call it a day.”
As they went into the pit, Detectives Jeannie McBride and Will Tyrone were returning from a call.
“What’ve you got?” Gonzo asked them.
“A double suicide,” Jeannie said.
“You’re sure that’s what it was?” Gonzo asked.
“There was a note.” Jeannie handed it over to Gonzo, and Freddie moved in for a closer look.
I’m sorry it has come to this. Our financial problems have gotten to the point where we’re going to lose the house. Please take care of our kids. They don’t deserve any of this.
“Aw, damn,” Freddie said. “How old are the kids?”
“They’re both in college,” Jeannie said. “The father’s brother is taking care of notifying them. He told us the husband lost his job two years ago, and his benefits were running out. They couldn’t pay the mortgage and the bank was going to take their house. The last time he saw his brother, they talked about him declaring bankruptcy to get out from under the mortgage. He said the brother was worried about how they’d eat and where they’d live.”
“It’s so sad,” Will added, “that they felt they had no other options.”
“How’d they do it?” Gonzo asked.
“Pills,” Jeannie said. “The empty bottles were on the bed between them. His brother told us he’d had back surgery last year, and they used the leftover narcotics to OD. They were found holding hands.”
“Take care of the paperwork,” Gonzo said, “and call it a day.”
“Where’s Sam?” Jeannie asked. “We’re supposed to go to our last dress fitting together.”
Freddie glanced at Gonzo. “Um, well, there’s been a situation.”
“What kind of situation?”
Freddie took them through the sequence of events that’d happened earlier, ending with the phone call Gonzo had received about Alex from the Secret Service.
Jeannie shook her head in disbelief. “Wait... So what you’re saying...”
“Someone has made a threat against their family, so the Secret Service has them all under protection.”
“Where?”
“We don’t know.”
“What was the threat?”
“We don’t know that either.”
“How long—”
“We don’t know anything more than what we’ve told you, Jeannie,” Gonzo said. “Believe me, I want to know how long they’re going to hold my son, and I can’t get even that much out of them.”
“It must’ve been bad if they took everyone, even her sisters.”
“We’re working under that assumption.”
“I feel like a selfish jerk for worrying about my wedding at a time like this when something much bigger is going on, but what’ll I do if she can’t be there?”
“I doubt whatever this is will go on for more than a week,” Gonzo said. “If it does, I’ll be losing my mind, so we can lose our minds together.”
“I’m sorry,” Jeannie said. “I don’t mean to make it about me when your child is being held somewhere, and you have no idea where he is. That’s way worse.”
“The whole thing sucks,” Gonzo said. “Imagine what it’s like for the Secret Service agents who’re stuck with Sam.”
That made them all laugh and relieved some of their tension, although Freddie could tell that Jeannie was still freaked out. After having been held by a psycho last year, she’d be hit harder than most by this latest development. Will must’ve been having the same thought because he squeezed Jeannie’s shoulder in support.
“Try not to worry,” Gonzo said. “At least we know she’s in good hands and being kept safe from whatever’s happening.”
“There is that,” Jeannie said.
“I’ll take care of the reports,” Will said. “Go on ahead to your fitting.”
“Are you sure?” Jeannie asked her partner.
“Positive. You’ve got better stuff to do.”
Jeannie glanced apprehensively at Sam’s dark office before she nodded to him. “Thank you. You’ll let me know if you hear any more about Sam and Nick?”
“We will,” Gonzo said.
“Okay, then. I’ll see you guys in the morning.”
After she left, Gonzo said, “I’m going to check on Chris, and then we can go talk to Ruby’s parents. Give me five.”
“You got it.” Freddie went to his cubicle and tried to wrap his mind around what’d transpired out at the river. He had to put his observations into a narrative that would make sense on a report, when none of it made sense to him. Beckett had emailed his contributions, which Freddie would combine with his own. He could hear Gonzo still on the phone with Christina in the LT’s office, so he called upstairs to Lieutenant Archelotta.
“Hey, it’s Cruz,” Freddie said when Archie picked up his extension. “Just checking to see if you’ve picked up anything about the threat to the lieutenant’s family.”
“Not a thing. I’ve got people digging deep and we’re coming up empty.”
“What the hell? How can there be a threat that’d warrant the family being collected dragnet-style and there be no sign of it anywhere online or in any of the usual places?”
“I have no idea, but whatever it is, it must’ve been hard-core for the Secret Service to react this way.”
“Is it weird that you can’t find any mention of a threat?”
“A little. What’re you thinking?”
“I keep reliving the fear that the people who took her aren’t really Secret Service agents.”
“You didn’t see their badges?”
“I did but I didn’t get close enough to really examine them.”
“You really think it’s possible they were fake?”
“Not anymore. They contacted Gonzo to let him know they have his son because he was with Sam’s sister Angela, and we think that means they’re legit. The whole thing happened so fast, and it was so weird the way they showed up at a crime scene and just took her. How did they know where we were? She’s not under any kind of protection.”
“It is bizarre. Do you think they keep tabs on her even though she’s not officially under their protection?”
“If they do, that’d be news to me—and to her too, I suspect.”
“The whole thing is crazy,” Archie said. “I’ll give you that.”
“Let me know if you pick up any chatter about her or Nick.”
“I will. For sure.”
“Thanks, Archie.”
Gonzo came out of the office, shut the door and locked it. “Let’s get this over with.”
Dreading the thought of seeing Ruby Denton’s parents to ask them for dental records, Freddie got up and followed Gonzo out of the pit.
* * *
AFTER GETTING THE INFO on where to find Ruby’s parents from the Missing Persons squad overseeing their daughter’s case, Gonzo and Freddie headed for the city’s northeast corner. With that entire squad out pursuing leads in Ruby’s case, this dreadful task fell to them.
“I hate shit like this,” Gonzo muttered while they fought late-afternoon traffic.
“Me too. How does anyone cope with not knowing where their kid is?” As soon as he said that, Freddie felt bad because Gonzo didn’t currently know where his kid was. At least he knew the little guy was safe, though. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to be insensitive.”
“No worries. I know where mine is—or at least who he’s with—and I’m losing my mind wondering how long it’ll be before I can get him back.”
“I just keep thinking about what kind of threat would spur this sort of reaction,” Freddie said.
“I imagine the worst kind. I can’t think about it, or I’ll go nuts.”
“At least you know he’s safe with people who love him and being guarded by federal agents.”
“Try telling that to Christina. She doesn’t want to hear that he’s safe and loved. She wants to hear he’s coming home.”
Ruby’s parents were staying at a hotel that’d seen better days on Massachusetts Avenue, one of the main arteries into and out of the District.
“Ugh,” Freddie said when they pulled up to the shitty-looking motel. “Look at this place.”
“Probably all they can afford. Who knows how long they’ll be here.”
They took the outdoor stairs to the second floor and knocked on the door to room 218.
The door flew open, and the exhausted-looking man who opened it immediately identified them as cops. “No,” he whispered. “Please don’t tell me...”
Freddie and Gonzo produced their badges and introduced themselves.
“Mr. Denton,” Gonzo said, “we don’t have any new information for you, but we can tell you that a female body was pulled from the Anacostia River today.”
A sharp cry of distress came from inside the room.
“May we come in?” Freddie asked.
Mr. Denton stepped aside to admit them, and Mrs. Denton rushed at them, fisting Freddie’s shirt, her eyes wild and rimmed with red. “Is it my daughter? Just tell me. Please tell me.”
Freddie covered her hands with his and gently extracted them from his shirt. “We don’t know yet if it’s her.”
“Take me to her,” Mrs. Denton said. “I need to see her.”
“I’m afraid it’s not possible to visually identify her,” Gonzo said.
She let out a wail, and only her husband’s arm around her kept her from falling.
“What do you need from us?” Mr. Denton asked.
“Dental records.” Gonzo said it quickly. They’d learned that was the best strategy in situations like this.
The woman’s legs collapsed under her, and her husband led her to the bed, where she sat and dropped her head into her hands, sobbing uncontrollably.
Gonzo placed his card on the desk. “If you could have them sent to us at the address written on the back of this card as soon as possible, we’ll let you know if it’s her.”
Mr. Denton nodded in understanding. “We’ll take care of it.”
“We’re sorry you’re going through this,” Freddie said. “We’re doing everything we can to get answers for you.” The Missing Persons squad had been working around the clock since Ruby disappeared. Until a floater showed up in the river, they hadn’t had a single break in the case.
“Thank you.” Mr. Denton showed them to the door. “We appreciate all that’s being done to find her.”
As they headed for the stairs, Gonzo stopped all of a sudden to lean against the wall. He closed his eyes to take a deep breath.
“You okay?” Freddie asked.
Gonzo nodded but he didn’t move from his post against the wall.
Freddie wasn’t sure what he should do, so he waited. Since Arnold died, Gonzo had been more prone to moments such as this when the job seemed too much for him. The old Gonzo, the pre-Arnold-being-killed Gonzo, would’ve powered through a situation like this, knowing it was part of the job. This Gonzo... Well, he was different—quieter, moodier, anxious and tense. He didn’t smile as easily or joke around the way he used to.
Freddie missed the old Gonzo, but he understood. He couldn’t fathom what it would be like to lose Sam the way Gonzo had lost Arnold. Just having her taken off the grid by the Secret Service was making him crazy. Losing her forever... The very thought of it made him shudder with revulsion.
Freddie was relieved to take a call from his fiancée, Elin. He walked toward the stairwell to give Gonzo some space and took the call.
“Hey, hon, what’s up?”
“Just wondering if you’ve seen the news,” Elin said.
Freddie braced himself for whatever had happened now. “Nah, I’ve been working.”
“The Capital News Network is reporting that the vice president’s family has been threatened, and the Secret Service has taken Nick, Sam, their son and extended family to a safe location.”
“I knew about that. They took her right from a crime scene earlier. Did they say anything specific about the threat?”
“No, but the news people are speculating about the kind of threat that could force the Secret Service to take such drastic measures.”
“What’re they saying?”
“Terrorism is topping the list.”
Freddie sagged against the wall and released a deep sigh. “We were working a crime scene, and they just took her. It was crazy. For a while after, I wasn’t even entirely sure they were actually federal agents.”
“And you don’t know anything about where they’re being held?”
“Nope. Get this—Angela had Alex, so he’s with them in the secret location. Gonzo and Christina are losing their minds wondering where he is and how long it’ll be before they get him back.”
“Oh my God. That’s crazy. How’re you doing?”
“It’s been a very strange day all around.”
“When will you be home?”
“I’m going back to HQ for a short time to finish up some paperwork, and then I’ll be home. An hour or two.”
“I’ll make some dinner.”
“That sounds good.” He couldn’t wait to get home to her and put this hideous day behind him. “I’ll see you soon.”
“Love you.”
“Love you too.” As he ended the call, Gonzo went past him down the stairs. Freddie followed him.
They drove back to HQ in silence. In the parking lot, Freddie said, “You go home to Christina. I’ll write this up and finish the reports from earlier.”
Gonzo nodded. “Thanks.”
“You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m great.” He said what Freddie wanted to hear, but any fool could see he was the opposite of great. “I’ll see you in the morning. Call me if anything pops overnight.”
“I will. You do the same.”